Stocks off early, recover little

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Renewed concerns that central banks will ease off their support for the global economy hit the U.S. stock market Tuesday, wiping out its gain for the month.

It looked bad from the start. Indexes began sliding from the opening bell, trailing markets in Asia and Europe, which were rattled when the Bank of Japan decided not to take any new steps to spur growth in the world's third-largest economy.

The news out of Japan added to questions surrounding global central banks, investors said. U.S. markets have been shaken by speculation that the Federal Reserve will start curtailing its own bond-buying program in the coming months.

“There's just a lot of uncertainty,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG in New York. “People are worried about the Fed. They're worried about a spike in interest rates. And then Japan says it's finished for now.”

The Dow dropped 116.57 points to 15,122.02. That's a decline of 0.8 percent. It fell as much as 152 points in the first hour of trading, climbed back by midday and then sank in the afternoon.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 16.68 points to close at 1,626.13, a loss of 1 percent. All 10 industry groups in the index dropped, led by banks and energy companies. The S& P is down 0.3 percent for the month.

The S& P 500 index has lost 2.6 percent since setting a record high on May 21. The next day, minutes from a Fed meeting suggested the central bank could decide to scale back its stimulus as early as June if the economy picks up.

Sprint Nextel gained 17 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $7.35 after Japan's Softbank raised its offer for the company. Softbank's total bid for the country's third-largest phone carrier is now valued at $21.6 billion, still short of the $25.5 billion offered by Dish Network.

Overseas, the Bank of Japan voted on Tuesday to stick to its current bond-buying program, disappointing those who had expected the bank to widen its effort. Japan's Nikkei stock index lost 1.5 percent.

The Nasdaq fell 36.82 points to 3,436.95, a drop of 1 percent.

Corinthian Colleges sank 32 cents, or 12 percent, to $2.46. The company disclosed that it's under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and has been asked to turn over information on student attendance, recruitment and defaults on federal loans. The Santa Ana-based company runs the Everest, Heald and WyoTech colleges.

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